


You'll Have a Home

by Taste_is_Sweet



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Families of Choice, Finn Needs A Hug, Friendship, Gen, Light Angst, Multi, Poe Dameron Gives the Best Hugs, Pre-Relationship, Rey Needs A Hug, Sand Storm Pilot, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 03:36:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5569384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taste_is_Sweet/pseuds/Taste_is_Sweet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Poe's big, easy grin returned, brightening the whole room. "Rey asked me to look out for you while she was gone. She didn't want to leave you."</i>
</p><p>
  <i>"But, how do you know she'll come back?" Finn asked.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>That was another easy answer, it looked like. "Because I would."</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	You'll Have a Home

**Author's Note:**

> I watched _SW: TFA_ last week, and then I was thinking about Rey's vulnerable, bare shoulders and this happened. I love Poe, Rey and Finn. Sand Storm Pilot immediately became my OT3.
> 
> All made-up words come from the actual Expanded _Star Wars_ Universe, for serious. :)
> 
> This was betaed by the most awesome [Brumeier](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier). Thank you!

Rey cut the shoulders off her sleeves.

Stupid thing to notice, but her shoulders were very pink above the soft grey sleeves of her new clothes, and Poe's eyes kept darting to them like they were dashboard warning lights. He wondered if having her underarms uncovered had kept her more comfortable in the heat. He wondered if she were cold now, since this planet wasn't nearly so warm.

"Aren't you cold?"

She jerked in surprise then blinked up from her mug of coffeine, which she'd been staring into as if it held all the secrets of the universe. "What?"

"Sorry." Poe winced. "I was just wondering about your sleeves. Aren't you cold, cutting them like that?" He gestured at her nearer shoulder but made sure not to touch. She'd been leaning against the wall next to the doors of the base's medical wing when he'd been kicked out an hour ago, hugging herself and staring into the distance. She might as well have been wearing armor.

Rey looked at her right shoulder, then shrugged. "I'm used to it. It feels strange, having cloth there." She took a sip from her mug, then grimaced at the temperature. She took a larger slug of it anyway. Typical scavenger 'waste not, want not' attitude. Made a lot of sense, considering where she was from.

Like the bare shoulders. Poe pushed his mug closer to her. It was his second and still hot. "I've had that jacket since I became a pilot."

Rey frowned. "What jacket?"

"Finn's," Poe said. "I gave it to him."

She kept frowning. "He said he found it with the crashed fighter, when he thought you'd died."  


And he kept it. In the desert. There was something really nice or really sad about that; Poe couldn't settle on which. He nodded, smiling. "I let him keep it. It suits him." He reached for his coffeine without looking, then remembered she had it. He crossed his arms on the table instead. "But I had the jacket for a long time. I loved it." He grinned. "For a while it was the only thing I had that I actually owned."

She blinked at him again. Her eyes were bright amber, almost luminescent. Poe liked looking at them. "What about BB-8? And your X-Wing?"

Poe shook his head. "Officially, they belong to the Resistance." He tilted his head in a tiny shrug. "If I left, I might be able to keep BB-8. But they also might keep him, wipe his memory and give him to another pilot."

Rey's eyes went huge. "They'd _do that?_ "

"Probably not. But they might." He smiled to reassure her. "I'm not planning on leaving the Resistance anyway. Not until the First Order is gone. But I just meant that the jacket was one of the only things I've been able to take with me, from base to base."

Rey took a drink of Poe's coffeine, holding the mug in both hands, as if she was worried someone would try to take it. She stared at him over the rim like she was trying to figure him out. "Why did you tell me that?"

He shrugged again, purposely casual. "Your shoulders made me think of it. I just meant that I understand it, trying to keep what you can."

"Oh." She took another drink, a long one, but she kept swallowing once she put the mug down. She hugged herself, hands on her bare shoulders like she was chilled after all. Poe wished he had another jacket he could give her. "I didn't do it for that." She blinked a few times, then wiped her eyes with her fuzzy sleeve. "I just. I'm used to it. It's easier to move like that, when you have to…." She stopped talking, her luminescent eyes even brighter with the liquid now glimmering in them. Her lower lip trembled.

"Oh, no. No, no, no." Poe got up and went around the table to give her a hug. She stiffened for just a moment—understandable, she didn't really know him—but then gave in and clung to him as she cried. Poe held her tight. The bare skin of her shoulders was cold under his hands. "It's all right. It's okay. You'll be fine."

Rey let go of him sooner than he expected, sitting back and blotting her eyes with her sleeves. She sniffled, then wiped her nose on the back of her arm. "Thank you," she said, a little roughly.

"Anytime." He smiled warmly, then pulled his chair closer to her before he sat down again. "Believe me, I've had those moments myself."

She flickered a wan smile at him, then took her mug in both hands. "My parents left me on Jakku," she said, eyes on the remaining liquid. "I don't know why."

"They wanted you to be safe." Poe wrapped his hand around her wrist. She didn't acknowledge it but didn't pull away either. He had no idea if what he'd said was true, but he made his voice certain anyway. She needed to hear it. He was sure she'd spent enough time feeling abandoned.

"I guess." Rey lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "That was what I told myself anyway, for years. That this was the best way they had of looking after me—leaving me with someone else. And that they'd come back…." Her voice creaked, but she just clenched her jaw. "I told myself they'd come back for so many years. I stayed in the same place, kept to the same routines, just so if— _when_ —they came back they'd be able to find me. I was so scared when I left Jakku in the _Falcon._ Not because of the First Order chasing us, but because I kept thinking, what if my parents come back and I'm not there?"

"I'm sorry."

She lifted the same shoulder again. "I think I always knew they weren't coming back. But I told myself they were because it was easier that way."

"I understand that, wanting something to hope for," Poe said. It made him think of Finn, who'd spent most of his life training to be a weapon. He hadn't even had a name. Poe had no idea how Finn had learned to hope for anything, but Poe was only alive now because Finn somehow had.

"Yeah." Rey nodded, brushed another tear away. "I left everything behind. My speeder was the only thing I cared about, but…I left everything." She finally lifted her gaze. "Will you look after Finn for me, when I'm gone?"

He nodded seriously. "Of course I will. But, you're coming back with the general's brother. You're not abandoning him."

"I know. But, he's my friend. And…and I'll miss him."

Poe squeezed her wrist lightly. "I know he'll miss you as well. But he's not the only one." He grinned, making sure it was just a little wicked. "Well, BB-8 told me he'll be happy without you to drag him into trouble anymore."

She rolled her eyes, but smirked the way he hoped she would.

"I'll miss you too," he said seriously.

Rey looked confused. "We just met. Not even an hour ago."

It was easy to smile in response to that. "I make friends quickly. Besides, you saved his life and you rescued my droid. I liked you for that before I even met you."

"Oh." Her answering smile was far more tentative, but no less welcome for that. "Well, you got him away from the First Order. I liked you for that, too." She moved her wrist under his hand, but only to lace their fingers. "It feels really strange, to be getting back into a ship, even if it's the _Falcon_. I never thought I'd leave Jakku, and now I'm suddenly going all over the galaxy."

"I remember that, how it felt to leave my home for the first time. I was excited, but also terrified."

Rey smirked again. "Right now I'm not even sure I can tell the difference."

Poe laughed. "Go with excited, then. And remember, it doesn't matter how far you go—as long as the Resistance exists, you'll have a home to come back to."

She frowned. "That's not true. The Resistance has to keep moving so the First Order won't find us."

"It's not the place," Poe said. "It's all of us. We'll be waiting for you." His smile turned sly. "Especially Finn."

She glowered at him, but she didn't let go of his hand. And the way her cheeks pinked was worth it.

* * *

Finn woke up from yet another nightmare. This time, though, he was only suddenly awake, not crying or screaming or anything. So, all in all an improvement. He still reached for his helmet, sure he'd find Slip's blood, then startled when he just whapped himself in the forehead.

He was in the medical wing of the Resistance base. He wasn't on his stomach, dying in the snow. He'd left his armor in the desert. The doctors had told him at least a hundred times that the pain medicine might give him nightmares. Right.

Poe was asleep in a chair with his head lolling at a really uncomfortable angle. Poe's—Finn's—jacket was on the floor next to his feet. It had probably slipped out of Poe's lap. Strange that Poe would have it at all, since it'd been split down the back along with Finn's spine. Maybe he was taking it back because Finn had treated it so badly?

That was really sad. Finn _loved_ that jacket. He hadn't meant for that murdering Sith nerf herder to ruin it. And now Poe was going to take it away and he was probably going to break his neck, sleeping like that and then he'd be gone just like Rey and it was all really, really sad.

Finn was already snuffling miserably into his pillow before he remembered that oh, right. The doctors had told him that the pain medicine might make him gloomy, too.

"Finn?"

"Sorry," Finn sniffed, because now he'd gone and woken up Poe with his snuffling because of the stupid medicine. But at least Poe wasn't breaking his neck so that was good. "It's all right. You can keep the jacket."

"What?"

"I didn't mean to wreck it." Finn swiped clumsily at his eyes. He couldn't remember if the medicine was supposed to make him clumsy too. Maybe he was always clumsy. He was a terrible Storm Trooper. Everything was terrible. Except Poe's neck not being broken. That was good. "I'm glad your neck's not broken."

Poe blinked at him a few times. "Thanks. Me too," he said dubiously. Then he made an, 'Oh, I get it' face. "It's the painkillers, isn't it?"

Finn nodded unhappily. He wanted to sit up, but the doctors had told him not to and his back still hurt when he moved too much anyway. He groped for the controls and raised the head of his medical cot until he could at least look Poe in the face. "I'm really sad."

"Oh, Buddy." Poe leaned over and carefully pulled Finn into a hug. 

Poe gave the best hugs. Finn had never gotten hugs as good as Poe's before. He'd never been hugged at _all_ , not after the First Order stole him. And that was really awful. That was actually worth crying about. So he did.

"I know, Buddy. I know. It's okay. It'll wear off and you'll be just like your old self again, I promise." Poe kept hugging him, even though his shoulder was getting wet. "Everything's awful right now, I know. But it's just temporary. You're going to be fine."

Finn managed to mostly cry himself out so he could finally let go, then gratefully took the cloth Poe handed him. He nodded, still wiping his nose, when Poe asked if he felt better. Everything was still awful, but less awful. It helped that the other man was there. "You give really good hugs."

Poe grinned. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Finn swallowed and cleared up the last of his snot, then gestured at the jacket with his chin, the way Han Solo had taught him. "I'm really sorry about your jacket."

"What?" Poe glanced over his shoulder, then grabbed the jacket off the floor. "No, no. It's fine. Look." He held it in front of him with a flourish, then turned it so Finn could see the back. The place Kylo Ren's lightsaber had burned through above his collar bone had been patched, though it was little haphazard. Finn could see the burned edges of the hole Kylo made, as well as the slightly darker patch of the new leather underneath. The back of the jacket had a thin strip of the same material running from just under the collar to the hem, where Kylo had come close to vaporizing Finn's spine. "I fixed it. See?" Poe said proudly. "You can wear it again."

"But it's yours," Finn protested. "I wrecked it."

Poe's eyebrows lowered in confusion. "I don't think you were the one who took a lightsaber to it." He grinned. He had an excellent grin; really infectious. Finn would have smiled back if everything wasn't so terrible. "Besides, you were injured protecting Rey. That makes you a hero. Heroes need excellent jackets."

It was an excellent jacket. Finn loved that jacket, though it was mostly because Poe had given it to him. "You still want me to have it?"

The confused eyebrows came back. "Of course I do. I gave it to you. It's already yours."

"But I ruined it."

"Finn, we just had this conversation." Poe gently lay the jacket over Finn's chest. "Here. It'll keep you warm. The medical wing can get chilly."

Finn wasn't cold, but he didn't mind having Poe's—his—jacket on him like this. He touched the long patch running down the back. "I'm sorry it got damaged."

"I'm not." Poe grinned at him again, gesturing at the patch. "These are battle scars. It has a story now, just like you."

Finn ran his fingers along the groove where the old leather connected to the new. It was true, he realized, he did. "I've never had a story, before." He'd never had anything, before. His armor, the weapons he used, his entire _self_ had belonged to the First Order. The first thing he'd ever been given that he could keep was his name. He gritted his teeth so he wouldn't start crying again.

He snuffled. Stang it. He hated those painkillers.

"Hey, don't cry. It's all right." Poe cupped Finn's face to carefully clear the water out of his eyes. That was so sweet it almost made everything worse. "Your story is the reason I'm alive."

Finn shook his head. Poe pulled his hands away but then just took Finn's closer one. "I wasn't trying to rescue you. I just needed a pilot."

Poe laughed. "And I wasn't trying to help a Stormtrooper, I just needed to escape. So it worked out for both of us. And you completed my mission for me."

More or less, Finn thought. The darker patch on his jacket looked like a long scar. "I miss Rey."

"She'll come back." Poe squeezed his hand. "She misses you too."

"How do you know that?"

Poe's big, easy grin returned, brightening the whole room. "She told me, when she asked me to look out for you while she was gone."

"She did?"

He nodded. "She did. I would have anyway, but she did ask me. She didn't want to leave you."

Rey not wanting to leave him was another really sad thing, but at least Finn managed not to start bawling again. Except Poe had answered the wrong question. "But, how do you know she'll come back?"

That was another easy answer, it looked like. "Because I would."

"Oh." Finn blinked, suddenly aware of Poe's hand linked with his in a way he hadn't been just a moment ago; the way Poe bit his lip when he smiled, which made him look far younger and oddly shy. "Well, I'd come back for you, too. And Rey," he added, because it felt important to say that.

"And Rey." Poe nodded. He squeezed Finn's hand, then let go and stood. "I should let you go back to sleep. You need to be healed up for when Rey gets back."

Finn was disappointed, but it'd be better for Poe to have a bed instead of a chair that might break his neck. And Finn was still tired. Not as sad, though, which was nice. "Will you come back?"

"Of course," Poe said from the doorway. "You're here." He gave Finn one more bright smile before the door closed behind him.

 

END

**Author's Note:**

> Look! I'm on [Tumblr!](http://taste-is-sweet.tumblr.com/) Follow me! I'm organic and non-GMO. You can also find out more about me [right here](https://about.me/aundreasinger). ♥
> 
> This fic fills the **Motion Sickness** square of my [Hurt/Comfort Bingo](http://hc-bingo.livejournal.com/) [Card](http://taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com/92414.html).


End file.
